It Changed My Life!

Crafty is what I have always been called amongst my close friends and ‘Linda will be able to use it or make it’ is an all too familiar phrase. To a certain extent this is true, I do see a use in most things fabric, and I will have a go, although not always successfully, at making anything. The problem is that once you start making things, and in particular quilts, you are always on a quest for something different, and these ‘lightbulb’ moments can happen at the most unexpected moment of an ordinary day.

The most recent inspiration happened when my son and daughter in law moved into their new house. We went to see it, before any furniture had been installed, and yes the architraves and light fittings were beautiful, the fireplaces were ‘period’ and the staircase was fantastic. However, the thing that jumped up and shook me was the floor. You might have guessed it wasn’t wooden, lino, cushion flooring, and no it wasn’t carpet. It was an original Edwardian Mosaic Floor. I could see stars, squares, triangles and rectangles – a perfect quilt block! I have bought the fabrics and intend to make either door stops or cushion covers (or both!).

I am not a person who very often sits in front of the tv to watch a film. If I do I am always sewing or knitting or crocheting to keep busy. Westerns have been a pet hate of mine for as long as I can remember. Not anymore!!! My war cry is ‘QUILT ALERT’, and with sketch book at hand I draw out the block from a 5 second flash that appeared on a bed in a log cabin in a 1950’s film (colour if I am lucky). My family now help me spot quilts in films. Mary Poppins and Nanny McFee I think have both got examples, but Downton Abbey, Larkrise to Candleford, Upstairs Downstairs have all – I am pretty sure – display fine examples.

I think the strangest time I noticed this happening around me – not to me this time – was in a restaurant in Birmingham. My friend and I had been staying at a hotel while visiting the NEC Festival of Quilts. We had spent two days looking at beautiful quilts, spending copious amounts of money on goodies from the hundreds of traders, buying books with new patterns and generally being overwhelmed by the designs, craftsmanship and variety of quilts. We were eating breakfast. I noticed a group of ladies sit down at the table behind us. They got comfortable and started talking as you would expect. Then it happened. They all got their cameras out and started pointing. Trying not to stare I followed the direction of their stares. It was the floor – again! This time it was the carpet! Circles, lines, oblongs, triangles squares, different colours. We all photographed the carpet with the full intention of making a quilt with the pattern. So quilting and patchwork has changed my life, I now watch westerns – much to family’s amusement – and wonder now if you will too. I also walk looking the floor far too often for my own safety!

If you find yourself shouting ‘QUILT ALERT’ think of me x

Mrs Goose x

From a Piece of Fabric to a Blanket

The journey from being a lonely roll of fabric in a shop to a part

of a patchwork blanket is long and time consuming.

Decide on the colour and theme of the blanket.

Go through all the boxes, cupboards and shelves of fabric I have in

the house before deciding:

a) they aren't quite right for what I want,

b) they are too nice to cut up,

c) I need to buy some more.

Head off to the shops feeling like a kid at Christmas and buy the

fabric I need plus plenty more I didn't realise I did! I then have

to try and sneak the extra fabric into the house without hubby seeing

or the kids telling tales on me to my husband!

Send the kids off to bed nice and early despite their protesting so

I can get the said fabric out and begin cutting. Then the fun begins

by spending an hour wishing I had paid more attention in maths when

we were using protractors whilst trying to work out how to use my

quilting ruler. Once the air is nice and blue I work out how to use

it and begin cutting, rotary cutter permitting! Many a time mid

cutting a rotary cutter blade has bent, become blunt or the whole

thing breaks - I really should bite the bullet and buy a more

expensive one a it will save me money long term! As the pile of

fabric squares begin to grow so does my imagination, mentally placing

the squares in order ready to sew. After an hour or two of back

breaking cutting I finally have enough, plus extra to start making.

With relief the cutting matt, rulers and rotary cutter is put away

and I can begin to play!

Although the blankets I make appear random I spend a good few hours

playing with the squares until it feels and looks right. Again this

is all done in stages:

Clear and re clean the table,

Fully extend the table and clean the middle,

Pile up the squares into matching piles,

Look at all the different fabrics and visualise it in my head,

Check how many rows and columns I need,

Place the first one,

Look again at all the squares,

Choose a square that compliments the first one - either similar

shades, lighter/darker, complimenting colours and feels right,

Place it,

Look again at the squares,

Repeat process until all the required squares are in place,

Step back and look at the full layout,

Take a picture,

Realise it doesn't look quite right so start moving a few squares,

Take a picture,

Still not happy with it so rearrange again,

Take another photo,

Repeat above steps another two or three times,

End up with a layout very similar to the first one,

Step back, look at it,

Yes, it looks and feels right (hey it is the same as the first bar 2

or 3 squares but I need to be sure!),

Take a picture,

Begin to pin,

Stick a post it note on the top of each pile stating wherein comes

in the blanket - top left square, top row, left hand side 2nd row

down etc,

Clear the table,

Get the sewing machine out and set up,

Get extra equipment out,

Begin sewing,

Finish sewing 2-3 hours later depending on size of blanket,

Iron,

Take another picture,

Cut backing,

Pin in place,

Sew it on,

turn the right way round,

Seal,

Iron,

Take completed picture,

Admire it,

Email customer to let them know it is completed,

Tidy away,

Get a glass of wine to celebrate!

Post the item,

Wait in anticipation to hear the customer has received the item and

likes/loves it,

Big sigh of relief when they do,

Stick a picture and their review on your business page for others to

see and read.

So the journey from a piece of fabric in the shop to bring part of a

beautiful patchwork quilt is long, time consuming and well thought

out. So when you see a handmade blanket for sale, balk at the price

- "£70 for a single blanket?!" think of this - if I were to pay

myself £10 an hour, you would be paying more than £70 for my labour!

At this price I am getting only a third of it for my labour!

Mrs Fabric

Upcycling.........

I love things that are upcycled and I hate waste. I love to cook and garden but most of all I love to sew. Not clothes, although I have the deepest respect for those that can make their own clothes. No, I love making bags. I dabble in other sewing bits but mostly I make bags. I love vintage and retro fabrics and try to use them wherever I can. If I can't find (or afford) any lovely vintage or retro then I will use remnants or bits of fabric donated by friends and family.

Sew (that was a play on words, did you get that?) why bags? You ask. Let’s just pretend you did ok? A few years ago a small town Westcountry town, let’s call it Modbury because that’s its name, banned carrier bags. The local supermarket reckoned that on an average day it gave away 1000 plastic carriers. A wildlife photographer who lived locally, launched a campaign which was enthusiastically embraced by all 43 local traders and now if you buy comestibles in Modbury, you will not be offered a plastic carrier bag. It is a plastic bag free zone. Even the local florist uses biodegradable sheets and raffia instead of cellophane & ribbon.

While most supermarkets accept bags back for re-cycling, a lot of plastic bags still end up in landfill or worse still, in hedgerows or floating in the sea. It is reported that plastic bag litter kills over 100,000 seabirds, dolphins, seals, whales and turtles every year*. Now, this really struck a chord with me and I started upcycling used fabrics into pretty re-usable market bags. Re-using fabrics keeps textiles out of landfill and is definitely a whole other blog subject.

Well, one thing leads to another as we all know and the more bag patterns I found the more I wanted to make. It has got to the stage where I mentally unpick a lady’s bag as I follow her down the street. I’m not even discreet. I hasten to add that unpicking a bag should not be confused with the ‘Artful Dodger’ style of ‘picking a (bag) or two’. ‘Bagging’ has become my obsession and it might sound a little unsavoury, but I can assure you, in this context, it really is quite harmless

*Ban the Plastic bag- A community Action Plan by Rebecca Hoskings

Butter...you spread it on your bread

But did you know you can also use it to make body products? Not cow’s milk butter silly that would be far too weird though I expect it has some good skin healing properties... I might have to Google that later.

The butters I use are naturally sourced, hard vegetable fat obtained from kernels (nuts) of plants that are usually solid at room temperature. Some occur naturally and can be obtained straight from the plant, such as cocoa, mango, and Shea. Others are obtained by first cold processing the fruit then refining them, these include coffee, hemp and macadamia. The resulting oil leaves behind natural waxes and fatty fractions that contain vitamins and moisturising properties and when blended with oil they produce a butter.

Some of the butters can be used alone and will melt on contact with the skin – Shea butter is an example of this and I often use it in this form on my youngest son’s legs when his eczema is playing up but some butters that are harder such as cocoa have to be melted and blended before they can be used. I use them in bath melts, balms and bath bombs.

Under EU regulations all producers of handmade bath and body products have to hold the correct documentation (I won’t bore you with all the details but it is worth checking with any company you buy from) and the ingredients have to be written on the product using their Latin names. Very confusing and how can you tell which butters are being used?

Here’s a short list for you to use to check what butter is in your body butter;

Aloe Barbadensis – Aloe butter which is extracted from aloe vera and combined with coconut oil (cocos nucifera), this butter is very soft so can be applied directly to the skin where it will melt on contact. The butter is very good for treating dehydrated or sunburnt skin, eczema and psoriasis.

Persea Gratissima – Avocado butter is a rich soft butter is obtained from crushing the flesh of an avocado fruit; it is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, D and E. It provides a wonderfully nourishing and hydrating treatment with natural sunscreen properties. It melts very easily and it beneficial for dry skin and also for damaged hair.

Theobroma Cacao – one of the most common and versatile butters, cocoa butter is the fatty component of chocolate, need I say any more? It is a fairly hard butter and is used in many cosmetic products. It is known to provide a protective barrier to retain moisture in your skin; it is also a source of natural antioxidants which help ease dry skin.

Coffea Arabica – a light brown butter with a delicious roasted coffee aroma it is made from hydrogenated coffee bean oil. It offers a natural protection from the sun and is excellent at moisture retention. It makes a fabulous lip balm and body butter.

Macadamia Ternifolia – this butter is made by combining natural waxes and hydrogenated oils from the macadamia nut. It is a highly absorbent, moisturizing and nourishing butter providing excellent skin protection.

Mangifera indica – obtained from the fruit kernels of the mango tree. The butter is used for many applications including treating dry, sunburnt skin, providing protection from the sun and treating rough skin, scars, wrinkles, eczema and dermatitis.

Olea europea – obtained from cold pressed olives with all the legendary properties of olive oil. It has a low melting point and can be used on it’s own, massaged directly into the skin, or added to balms, body butters, bath bombs and soaps.

Butyrospernum parkii – this naturally rich and creamy butter is obtained from the fruit of the African karate tree. Shea butter is highly emollient, rich in nutrients and has great anti aging and moisturising properties. It is used to diminish the appearance of skin scars including scars, stretch marks, burns, rashes and eczema.

Ooh what lovely natural skin delights there are. I hope after reading this you will pick up the current skin cream that you are using and see if any of these gorgeous ingredients are in it!

Here’s to natural happy skin!

Mrs Bath

I am going to make a quilt!

I am a quilter and a patchworker, so I am going to make a quilt. 

I have fabrics, of course, and I keep them in a kind of order. Fat quarters, smaller than fat quarters, scraps. Oh and I have a Christmas box, a denim box, a  box of plains, a box of shirtings, a box of  boys’ metres and a box of girls’ metres. (I won’t mention the ‘special’ box with fabrics in which I am collecting for ‘special’ projects.) .........and don’t ask about the wadding and the fleece!!

So, where do I start?  I have a pattern in mind.  It needs a couple of metres of fabric, a few fat quarters, bit of this, bit of that.  So I start to go through my fabrics and pull out the ones which I think would work, and put them on the table.  This of course is no easy task, because as I am going through my boxes, I find fabric I had totally forgotten about, start reminiscing where it was bought, how much it cost, who gave it to me, what did I buy it for originally..........

Three hours later, I have a pile of fabric on my table. It is actually a remarkably small pile because as I have gone through my vast collection  the phrases ‘no I can’t use that’, ‘no I like that too much to put in a quilt I am going to sell’, ‘no that’s one of my favourites (this piece usually has holes cut from it and is actually no good for anything anymore, but I still can’t part with it), ‘no, that’s too girly’, ‘no that’s too boyish’ ‘no I have never liked that, whatever possessed me to buy that in the first place?’ So I am left with a small but hopefully adequate pile of fabrics and I settle down to work out the pattern. 

Recently most of my quilts have been made up by me, I have drawn them out roughly in my design book, and then transfer them onto graph paper.  If it is a commission I regularly post photos on my page of how things are going, the fabrics I have finally chosen – well probably chosen – all for the clients approval.  I colour in the chart according to the fabrics I have chosen and gradually build up a picture of how the quilt will look.  This is when the problems start. All the fabrics are fine except one piece – it just doesn’t ‘fit’, it’s the wrong shade, it’s just not right. I just need a piece of fabric in a certain shade of a certain colour to finish off the design of this quilt.

After another 3 hours, going through the boxes all over again, even looking into the Christmas box in case I put some in there ‘by mistake’ (this ends in disaster because I realise I need more Christmas fabrics). I actually even look into my special fabrics – do you realise just what a sacrifice this is?  Nothing. Not one piece of fabric in the whole of my stash will do.  Not a single, solitary piece. What am I going to do?

I am going fabric shopping because I NEED this specific piece of fabric, nothing else will do, the quilt won’t work without it, so I have to go, besides, I need more Christmas fabric to don’t I?

Mrs Goose x

My jewellery making started about a year ago now when I saw a bracelet I really liked on Neighbours (I know, I know its my guilty pleasure!).   I started to have a look around to see if I could get something similar, when I happened upon a memory wire bracelet making kit and thought hay I could give it a go.   Well that was it, I was hooked.

I bought some books and watched youtube videos on the different techniques and the different types of jewellery.   I bought some beads, well when I say some I mean loads.  They do normally come in big packs!   Then I practised making jewellery for myself at first, then my lovely Mother-in-law wanted something to go with a dress for a wedding and she couldn't find anything in the shops.  So she   asked if I could make something.   I loved that, making jewellery to fit an outfit as well as to the persons tastes.

After that I set up a Facebook site hoping to be able to make custom jewellery for other people.  I came across the Jewellery Making channel on TV which I got addicted to.   It has so many ideas on how to use different shaped gem stones and that’s how I moved from just glass beads to real gem stones.   Sometimes I wish I had never found the channel as gem stones are so much more expensive!    I have had to go cold turkey since my 15 month old son has gotten into TV, but I still have a sneaky peak every now and then!

I must say jewellery making is never going to make me rich, I still make mostly for friends and family but I don't mind.   Its so nice to see something I have made being worn!

Mrs Jewels

Confessions of a Craftyholic

It’s official, if there was a law against crafting, hands up I would HAVE TO break the law!...in fact you would have to lock me up in a nut house and tie me up in the nice warm white jacket, handcuff or give me serious prescription drugs to knock me out! ‘cos I WOULD compulsively have to make something …anything to stop the twitching, otherwise I would be doodling, designing, reading and generally ‘putting stuff together/ or apart’ either physically or mentally.

I am officially away for the week with t’other ‘arf AKA his Nibbs (H N) and princess Dizzy dog (PD)…I have brought 2 x reading books and a crossword book, a ‘small selection’ of crafting items in a basket (to play with ‘cos I know there is something called the Foot Ball on TV… - two x four letter words to me … but I digress) along with the foot ball and a shed load of other sports on TV at this time of year H N will be glued to the closest one!...he will be transfixed like he has been transfixed by the snake in Disney’s ‘Jungle Book’…I’ll be honest a complete tribe of alluring Vestal virgins bobbing past dancing with all those floating veils, would not distract him…so even though me & PD are prepared to be sports widows we trail along hoping for some respite with fellow sufferers ehem, hoping them to be fellow crafters, sometimes taking something portable.

This is not all gloom and doom because the upside of this is that it triggers the ‘guilt card’ into action! Yeaaaah ….sooo this means that between matches I am able to spend as long as I like in book shops, craft shops and charity shops. In fact he is positively brimming with questions for the locals, as regards the nearest craft shop! Only problem is the local craft shop is already full of crafted stuff, and although I love ALL things crafty, and it is great seeing other people’s stuff…my hands are itching to get hold of some more items for my moderately small stash, as this is not getting my mojo going! So it is a trip to ‘hobby craft’ and to ‘the range’, including a series of visits to charity shops for some fab craft books and I now think I have sated my appetite (for the moment at least!)

Anyway tomorrow is ‘Fathers day’ and I cannot, not celebrate it for HN…- even I’m not that mean, contrary to popular belief!...and besides, there will be sport of some kind on TV later…n we are coming home Monday…I don’t have to navigate home!

Mrs Bee